Meditations on Extinctions

Recently I began a series of paintings about the loss of bird species, and then I wrote some haiku-like poems on the same topic. (Since I wrote my first haiku, I have learned more about it and realize that mine are not really haiku, but haiku-esque.) I enjoy the challenge of trying to express an idea or feeling in 17 syllables, as well as on a two-dimensional piece of paper. Both are exercises in trying to express a great deal of meaning in a small work.

30,000 BC - 1884

Thousands of Great Auks

Lived eons on far islands

Sailors ate them all 

1870 - 1889

Millions of bison

Extirpated in less than 

Twenty years of sport

Passenger Pigeons

Billions when whites came

Tasty flesh and useful down

Hunters sold them all

Carolina Parakeets

Our only parrot,

Pretty on hats, a farm pest,

We destroyed their homes

The Cause

Habitat loss and

Invasive species cause bird

Disappearances

Blame

Invasive species
The enemies of wildlife
Indeed they are us

Nature in 2100

Crabgrass, cockroaches,

Carbon gas, and coyotes

There used to be birds